Figures released in the House of Keys show there is fewer GP partners in general practice now than there were in 2011.

Liberal Vannin leader Lawrie Hooper (Ramsey) asked Health and Social Care Minister David Ashford how many whole time equivalent GP Partners were there in each of the last 10 years, how many salaried GPs and how many consultants at Noble’s Hospital there were in the same period.

Mr Ashford’s written response shows a fall in the number of GP partners from 46.95 in 2011 to 38.60 in 2020. The 2011 figure is also the highest at any point throughout the 10 years with 2020 also being the lowest.

There are currently 1.8 whole time equivalent salaried GPs working for the DHSC, down from 2019 when there were 2.5, but up from 2011 when there was one.

locums

The Minister said: ’The salaried GPs listed in the table are employed by the DHSC to provide paid locum cover to the GP practices to enable GPs to come out of practice for sessional work with the DHSC or for professional responsibilities such as GP appraisal.

’They can also be used to provide emergency cover for sickness or unexpected absence, at the practices expense where applicable.’

Between 2011 and 2020, the number of whole time equivalent consultants at Noble’s has risen from 42.11 to 56.99. Mr Ashford said that this included increasing the number of emergency department consultants by three and employing more acute medicine consultants to ’meet Royal College recommendations’.

He added: ’General surgery, gynaecology and paediatrics have each had an extra consultant to provide leave cover. Previously leave was covered by bank consultants and therefore provision of these posts saved significant overall costs.’